London Bridge is falling down, falling down.... How many times as a child did you sing that song?
It was true, in 1962 London Bridge was in fact falling down. This famous bridge that spanned the river Thames was built in 1831 and just couldn't handle the amount of the traffic that used it ....and its own weight.
The British government decided to put the bridge up for sale, and chainsaw magnate, Robert McCulloch, Founder of Lake Havasu City, Arizona, submitted the winning bid of $2,460,000. At the time it was most ever paid for an antique.
As the bridge was dismantled each stone was numbered, shipped 10,000 miles to Long Beach, California, and then trucked to Lake Havasu City. Reconstruction began on September 23, 1968, with a ceremony including the Lord Mayor of London, who laid the cornerstone. A little over three years later on October 10, 1971, the bridge was dedicated.
London Bridge is the second largest tourist attraction in Arizona with the Grand Canyon taking first place. I won't name names here but I can hear one particular Quail Run winter resident saying, "Oh great, the two biggest tourist attractions in Arizona....an old bridge and a hole in the ground". Hmmm, wonder who that could be? DARLENE, do you have any idea????
When we decided to go see the bridge today we had no idea how bad traffic was going to be. Not only are boat races on the lake going on, there's also a poker run going on in this area and we had to maneuver through large groups of motorcycles.
Evidently this is where all the twenty-somethings hang out on a beautiful Saturday afternoon. This is the channel that leads to the area shown in the picture above.
The more open space of the lake was just as crowded! I wouldn't want to be on a jet ski in that!
As the day got warmer this guy made a killing! I don't know if he took a ride out into the lake and sold boat to boat or not.
Some more shots of the bridge.
As you can in this picture, America's and England's flags fly over the bridge.
Now that I put this picture up I can see where you can't really make out the flags, you'll have to trust me that both flags are featured here.
This is a great park that lines the channel. There's lot of benches for dirty old men to ogle to watch the twenty something's at play. Volleyball courts, playgrounds, a dog park, picnic pavilions, stores and bars. Hotels, lake houses and summer rentals round out the rest of the shoreline.
Lake Havasu City is bustling with activity and growing by leaps and bounds. This town, which got its start as an Army Air Corps rest camp during World War II, now has over 1,000 businesses, two newspapers and a college. Remember that the next time a man comes up to you and offers to sell you a used bridge!
When we saw all that we came to see it was time to head back to the house, mundane things like laundry had to be done.
Here we are getting ready to cross this famous bridge. Now you can see the flags!
So we marked another one off of our Sights to See Bucket List!
While doing laundry I talked with a lady from northern California who is waiting for their house to be built in southern California. They are quitting the full time lifestyle after six years. As it turned out this same lady is one who is staying two sites down from ours. I asked her if she had taken the tour yet and she said that they had not been contacted and they were leaving in the morning as their free nights were done. Hmmm....not contacted by the sales office? I can only hope we'll be so lucky!
Speaking of laundry....its a dollar seventy five to wash here! That's the most we've ever paid. I had lots of laundry to do because I refused to get pulled into the laundry scam of the last place we stayed in. I forgot to tell you about this. In Sky Valley, you had to pay $5.00 for a laundry card, one that looks much like a plastic credit card. In order to use this card you had to load it! The first five was just to get the card,,,,the EMPTY, WORTHLESS card. Once you paid the five then you had to add another five, ten, twenty (depending on how long you were going to be here) to use the card in the washing machine/dryer slots. In my case I had four loads to do at $2.50 per load. $1.25 each for washing and drying. By the time I bought the card and loaded it, it would have cost us $15.00 to wash a weeks worth of clothes, towels and sheets. Nope, not gonna happen!
1 comment:
Well, we didn't see the London Bridge and the Grand Canyon WAS really grand, but there really is nothing that compares with Dead Trees and Dirt Roads. I mean... really.
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